The (accidental) switch
by lon'quesadilla
Summary: "Why does our child have purple hair— wait, Kaede?" (babyfic, modern au)


**a/n: **I suggested an idea to the group chat and then ended up writing it. Hope you like it!

* * *

As tired as she was, as soon as the nurse came back into the room with a clear bassinet containing the tiny human she'd spent the last twelve hours bringing into the world, Kaede immediately perked up.

"I have someone here who's eager to see you again," the nurse said as she pushed the baby bed across the room, stopping once she was at Kaede's bedside.

Kaede slowly sat up in bed against her pillow, peering over the edge of the bassinet. The baby was awake and alert, and ready to see her mom.

"Oh, there she is," she breathed, her heart melting at the sight of her newborn daughter. "Hi, sweetheart."

Shuichi quickly got to work on getting the baby to her mom, gently reaching into the bed to retrieve the baby for Kaede. He nervously picked her up, being careful to support her head as he brought her close to his chest. Once he felt safe with the baby in his arms, he began the slow trek around the bassinet to Kaede's bedside, where her arms were already outstretched to take her baby, which she did as gently, but as eagerly, as Shuichi.

"Hey, there," she greeted as she got her daughter comfortably cradled in her arms, looking down at the little girl with an exhausted smile. "You're so cute."

"She's perfect," Shuichi whispered, standing at the bedside and looking down at his wife and daughter meeting again, a tiny smile on his lips. It didn't feel real that they were finally parents, after all this time.

And yet, something felt off about it.

Shuichi couldn't put his finger on it, but the longer he stared at his wife and daughter his eyes switching between the two faces, the more odd it felt. Something wasn't right, but he couldn't figure out what it was.

He tried to shrug it off, but couldn't quite shake it, continuing to quietly study the faces, trying to figure out what was wrong.

A beep from his phone which signaled a text message temporarily distracted him, and he turned away from his new little family to check it. His phone was lying on the bedside table, and he immediately saw it was a picture text from his friend.

In all the excitement from the birth of his own daughter, he'd forgotten that his best friend was experiencing the same thing somewhere in this hospital. He and his wife had announced their pregnancy at the same time that Kaede and Shuichi had, which had made for an interesting previous nine months of Kaede and Maki being pregnant at the same time (well, for one of those expectant mothers and both of the potential fathers; Maki had found absolutely no joy in the situation).

Shuichi unlocked his phone and opened Kaito's photo message, realizing that it was probably a picture of his and Maki's child. He suddenly found himself eager to see what their child looked like, and was already planning on reciprocating with a picture of his own.

Shuichi's train of thought was interrupted when a shocked gasp from Kaede broke out from behind him, and he wheeled around to find Kaede staring back at him, open mouthed, their daughter's little hospital cap in one hand. His eyes immediately landed on the baby, and he saw why Kaede had gasped.

The shock of purple hair on the baby's head was something neither of them were expecting (or remembered; what he did clearly remember was the nurse's comment from when their daughter was first born about how dark her hair was, and how much she'd been born with).

"Why does our child have purple hair— wait, Kaede?"

"I saw a little bit of her hair sticking out from under her hat, and took her hat off to check...Shuichi, this isn't our baby."

It took less than a second to deduce what had happened. Shuichi looked back down at his phone screen, tapping it to brighten it again. His phone had downloaded the picture, and he found himself looking at a sleepy, dark haired baby, one who somehow looked more familiar than the one Kaede was currently cradling in her arms, who now sported a tiny pout on her lips from the sudden loud interruption.

"That must mean that they have her," he muttered.

"What?" Kaede asked, watching Shuichi.

"Kaito and Maki, they must have our baby," he said, looking down at his phone and trying to figure out how to relay what he and Kaede had just figured out in a text. "Kaito just sent me a picture of their baby. And—"

"Let me see the picture, I'll be able to tell," Kaede said, and Shuichi nodded. He lifted his phone up to Kaede's face and she nodded after only a moment.

"That's her," she said. "That's my baby. I'm sure of it."

She looked down to the baby in her arms, the little girl now feeling foreign to her. "Shuichi, how could this have happened?"

"I don't know, but I'm going to figure it out," Shuichi said as he looked back down at his phone screen, starting to gently pick his words as he composed a message to his friend.

* * *

"Hey sidekick, congrats on becoming a dad!" Kaito said excitedly, upon entering Kaede's and Shuichi's room a little while later. "But what's this about thinking you got our kid?"

His question was answered when he looked down at the baby in Kaede's arms, and a large grin breaking out over his face.

"Oh yeah, that baby is a Momota, for sure."

"I don't know how it happened, but the nurse seemed to have brought us your baby, and we were thinking that she might have brought you and Maki our baby," Shuichi explained.

Kaito looked thoughtful for a moment, before nodding once. "That must have been what Maki Roll was trying to explain to me when she said that the baby she had didn't feel like ours. She said she clearly remembered seeing purple hair, not dark as the void of space hair."

"It makes sense," Shuichi said with a nod. "Mystery solved, I guess."

"So, how do we go about correcting this?" Kaede asked, looking down at the baby in her arms once more. "I just want my baby back, as adorable as this little Momota is."

"I guess we should talk to a nurse or something," Kaito asked. "It might look a little suspicious if we both go carrying babies down the hallway."

"Do it, call the nurse," Kaede said. "Fix this, Shuichi!"

Shuichi nodded, pressing the nurse call button, glad to have been able to solve the mystery, but still feeling a bit upset that it had even happened in the first place.

* * *

This time when the nurse returned to the room pushing the (this time, hopefully correct) bassinet, Kaede went about making sure this baby was her daughter a bit hesitantly, afraid that somehow it had happened again and she was ending up with a different baby than her own.

But she quickly discovered that she had nothing to worry about, because when she got this daughter cradled comfortably in her arms and was looking down at her little face, things felt a lot better than they had before. Kaede looked up to Shuichi, a tearful smile on her face, and nodded.

"This is her. I can't believe she's here," she whispered.

Shuichi smiled back, relief flooding his mind, and the love growing in his heart for his girls.

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**a/n: **Thanks for reading!


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